Leader pays tribute to district council staff
The Leader of Richmondshire District Council has paid tribute to the authority’s loyal and hard working staff.
Coming just weeks before the council combines with the other districts and boroughs and the county council to form North Yorkshire Council, Councillor Angie Dale said she wished them all well on their new journeys.
In her Leader’s statement for the last meeting of Richmondshire’s Full Council next week (21 February) she highlights some of the many issues and successes faced during her four years as Leader.
“It is with a heavy heart that I will deliver my last Leader's Statement for Richmondshire District Council – but we have had quite a journey over the past four years,” she said.
“Within three months of taking over we had to deal with the extreme floods in the Dales – and despite the devastation, we saw so many local heroes emerge from the communities. Our officers were part of that team, working door to door seeing what, if and how they could help the community. Everyone involved needs to be congratulated on the hard and selfless work during that difficult period.
“And then just as we thought things couldn’t get any worse COVID-19 struck. That completely changed how we operate as a council – but throughout that time all our services carried on seamlessly which was down to the can-do attitude of our management team, officers and front line workers. We should be very proud of our reaction to the crisis.
“And alongside this day to day work, staff have been dealing with local government reorganisation and the additional workload that has brought. This reorganisation is not the way I believe would have been best for the district as it is taking the ‘local’ out of local government, but we are where we are and officers have been entrenched in the mammoth amount of work needed to get us to 1 April.”
She says that through all this the council has continued to offer top class day to day services during her leadership – it has reacted to the climate change emergency by adding solar panels to buildings, converting Richmond Swimming Pool to green energy, developing a programme for EV chargers, and investing in electric street cleaning equipment and an electric car. It has created a bespoke website to attract outside investment and jobs; apprenticeships have been facilitated at more than 100 businesses; and business grants of £400,000 awarded. On top of that the future of Richmond Pool has been secured with a £1.8 million investment; a £19 million levelling up grant has been received for a new look Catterick town centre and a massive £1.5 million has been handed out in community based grants.
“None of these things would have happened efficiently without the hard work and good will of our officers. A vote of gratitude and thanks needs to be passed on to every member of staff for their service within Richmondshire, with our best wishes for the future.”